Greenies

made that clear from the start.'

Jackson smiled wearily. 'You assumed wrong, Wrath,' he said. 'My forces have no intention of surrendering to you. We're dug in for the long haul and we have every intention of repelling you from the surface.'

'Jackson, as a military officer you have to know that's simply not possible. Simple math will tell you that. My forces are highly trained, professional soldiers, and we outnumber your thugs four to one. Do the honorable thing and stand down. Don't sentence those misguided men to death.'

'Look, Wrath,' he said wearily. 'I know you're just posturing for the media right now, trying to talk tough to impress your citizens when they see this clip in their daily briefing. Any chance we can drop that now and talk as two commanding generals should? I know and you know that my forces have hit yours quite hard. You don't have to give me a rebuttal on this, since that is not what I wanted to talk to you about. You go ahead and keep telling your citizens that terrorist attacks are what are causing the deaths of your soldiers. There's no point in my disputing you because all you do is chop up my statements anyway.'

'What is it that you want then?' Wrath said. 'And please keep in mind that my patience for your rhetoric is very limited.'

'We need to discuss the prisoners that you've captured from our special forces teams,' Jackson told him. 'Now I know from those briefings you give you're claiming you've taken more than fifty of my men into custody but by my count I have two squads that reported coming under fire and that are now unaccounted for. That's twenty men although my guess is that most of them were killed in the exchange of gunfire.'

'The numbers that I reported in the briefing are accurate,' Wrath said with an indignant tone, although he was secretly impressed with Jackson's reasoning ability.

'As I said,' Jackson said, 'my hope is that we can talk like two military men here and you can save the propaganda for your daily briefing. What I expect out of you is that you treat the men you have captured and the bodies you have recovered according to the established Geneva Accords regarding warfare. By this I mean we are to receive a full accounting of our men that have been killed in action that you've been able to identify, an approximate number of the KIAs you have not been able to identify, and, most importantly, that you immediately release to us the identities of all men you have taken into custody and give us an update on their condition. Those men are to be treated as prisoners of war, which means they will not be subjected to torturous interrogation, paraded in front of your media cameras, or charged with criminal offenses.'

'Those men are not prisoners of war,' Jackson said firmly. 'They are separatist terrorists and they will be treated as such. They will be transported back to our landing ships and they will be extradited back to Earth for trial on charges of treason, murder, and terrorist acts. All of the thugs under your command were warned of that well in advance of our landings here.'

'Nevertheless,' Jackson said, 'this is a war we are engaged in. I know it and you know it. Keep in mind that we have captured more than thirty thousand prisoners of war from your armed forces.'

'Which you are holding as hostages,' Wrath said. 'And our reports are that you've tortured and outright killed thousands, if not all of them.'

'Again, Wrath,' Jackson said with a sigh, 'you know that is not true. We have transmitted to WestHem the name, rank, serial number, and physical condition of every single WestHem armed forces member that we have in custody. We have given you a full account of every one of your soldiers that was killed in the battle to capture the planet. Those bodies have been placed in storage for return to Earth. The prisoners are being kept in Geneva Accord standard POW facilities and will be returned to you when this conflict is over. They have been permitted to send mail home although my understanding is that your intelligence is blocking these communications.'

'Lies, nothing but outrageous lies,' Wrath said, managing to keep a perfectly straight face even though he knew that everything Jackson was saying was true.

Jackson ignored him. 'It is my demand as a military officer involved in open warfare that our prisoners and dead be accorded the same treatment, as is required under international law.'

'It's not going to happen, Jackson,' Wrath told him. 'Those men are terrorist criminals and they will be charged and tried as such.'

'Then you, General Wrath, will be subject to indictment by a Martian court for war crimes when this conflict is over,' Jackson told him.

That actually made Wrath bark out laughter. 'Is that the best you can do for a threat?' he asked. 'You're going to indict me for war crimes? Jackson, might I remind you my marines will have your entire planet in custody within three days? Might I remind you it will be you and your so-called governor that will be in federal prison awaiting execution six months from now? There will be no Martian indictments. Your planetary government will cease to exist entirely when this conflict is over.'

'That is your opinion, General,' Jackson responded. 'Myself and my soldiers, we have our own opinions on how this war is going to end. My hope is that you will at least entertain the possibility that my forces might defeat yours and that this planet will gain the independence we seek.'

'Impossible,' he spat.

'And if that happens,' Jackson went on, ignoring the interruption, 'we will demand the extradition of any war criminals under indictment as part of any armistice agreement. Keep in mind that if we defeat your forces, we will control the supply of food stocks to WestHem. They will have to take our demands seriously.'

Wrath yawned. 'You'll forgive me if I don't start trembling in my boots.'

'I'll forgive you,' Jackson said. 'But I would suggest you keep my words in mind. We Martians are not quite the pushovers you seem to think we are. Perhaps you'd care to reflect upon the damage we've done to you so far with these terrorist acts you keep talking about, both in space and on the planetary surface. You might also consider that my forces are well motivated to fight and that we've been training ever since the end of the Jupiter War to repel an invasion such as the one you are mounting. Do you remember your military history, Wrath? You went to the same military academy I did. Remember General Cornwallis? Remember General Westmoreland? They both thought victory was assured, that their objectives were a cakewalk, and neither one of them was fighting a force as equitable as the one you're fighting. We may fall in this battle, Wrath. I am able to acknowledge that fact. You need to acknowledge the fact that it might be your forces that fall and make contingency plans for it. That is all I'm telling you.'

Wrath refused to entertain even the possibility of his forces defeat, even deep in his own mind where cold hard facts instead of self-serving propaganda were churned over. 'All captured combatants in this battle will be arrested and tried as terrorists,' he stated as forcefully as he could. 'And if you have any compassion whatsoever for the citizens of your planet, you will unconditionally surrender right now, before our armor and our hovers are unloaded and start putting a serious hurt on you.'

Jackson seemed saddened, though not particularly surprised by his words. 'I was hoping that somewhere inside of you there was still a hint of the military honor that was instilled in us in the academy,' he said. 'I guess I was wrong.' He gave a little one fingered salute. 'Get your forces ready for the next act, Wrath. And keep in mind that you have been warned on the subject of war crimes.'

'Jackson, listen to reason. You don't have a...' But the image of Jackson had disappeared from the screen.

'He cut off the transmission, sir,' the communications officer said apologetically. 'Would you like me to try hailing him again?'

'That won't be necessary,' Wrath replied. 'We have nothing further to talk about.' He turned to Wilde once again. 'Now how much longer until those landing ships start touching down?'

Lon lay on his belly behind a spill of rocks atop of a hill. His combat goggles were in magnification mode as his eyes tracked over the array of landing ships that had come down on the Eden landing zone. The full compliment was now on the surface. They had come in from the east, touching down in prepared positions one after the other, their retro-rockets blaring bright enough to overwhelm the infrared spectrum, the roar thunderous even from five kilometers away through the thin air. All of the ship mounted 150-millimeter guns were now deployed, as were the 20-millimeter cannons. The marines themselves had remained inside of their ships while the landings were going on, although this was not standard WestHem doctrine. Most likely their commander did not want them exposed to mortar fire until necessary. Now that all of the ships were down however, there was cautious activity taking place. Ramps had come down and groups of engineers had emerged, followed by armed combat soldiers, all of them walking with that clumsy awkwardness that marked newcomers to Martian gravity.